


Interlude

by atheartagentleman



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 08:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2501564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atheartagentleman/pseuds/atheartagentleman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In November, it rained.</p><p>written for tumblruser geektaire</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude

**Author's Note:**

> Written for geektaire. Sorry this is so short -- life got a bit hectic -- but I hope you like it.
> 
> Much props to human-ithink and capricorn-child for taking a look at it for me.

In November, it rained, without so much as a pause for breath, the clear blue skies and mild days of October quite forgotten. It rained for weeks, the countryside half flooded with it, and the lands around Paris an impassable marshland. The streets were near-deserted, but the university would stop neither for hell nor for high water.

'Disease will only be hastened by this weather, and so should you,' was the rallying cry of the medical school.

There was talk of fever in the provinces, and Combeferre was rushed off his feet. His existence had narrowed to lecture halls and dissections, to wet stone as he hurried from his lodgings to the faculty and back, to the fleeting warmth of the cafés where he could wolf down a hot meal before his next commitment, and to brief glimpses of his own four walls in the moments between his return in the evening and his collapse into sleep. Exhaustion hung upon him like a second skin, but his mind was clear and sharp, so he put his weariness aside and carried on.

'This is not living', Grantaire exclaimed when he was able to catch Combeferre for a few minutes at lunch.

The rain still drummed at the window, but there had been stew in his plate and his boots had dried by the fire, so Combeferre counted himself well content. He could make no reply to this effect though before Grantaire continued:

'It hardly seems fair that you must give up your life that others might have theirs.'

'My life is no more valuable than theirs, and they are more numerous,' Combeferre said, ever the utilitarian as regarded his own welfare. He stretched and rose, making to return to his classes, but Grantaire's hand on his sleeve brought him up short.

'It is infinitely more valuable to us,' Grantaire said softly, pressing Combeferre's wrist for a moment before releasing him with a gentle smile.

'Do not let Enjolras hear you speak like that,' Combeferre said, smiling too, Grantaire’s shoulder warm beneath his palm through the rough material of his waistcoat. He held the contact a few more moments, then turned again to leave the café.

As he was almost out the door, he heard Grantaire call after him, 'Enjolras speaks like that too!' He hardly felt the cold or the downpour as he hurried along the streets, such was the warmth in his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> As ever, come find me on tumblr. For some reason, links are being weird on AO3 at the minute, but there are links in my other fics, or you can just put a hyphen between each word of my pseud here to get my tumblr.


End file.
